The family historian’s essential reading list
When researching family history, specific sourcing of original documents is essential, but these documents tell us little of the day-to-day routine of our ancestors. They don’t reveal the atmosphere of the family home and workplace, the daily sights, sounds, and smells encountered every day. They give little indication of whether the local community was genuinely united and at one, or whether the boundaries of class, creed, or politics caused irreparable divisions.
Factual diaries, reports and commentaries, whether local or national, written by those who lived through the recorded events, and books by later biographers with access to their written observations, are invaluable sources for providing this background. It’s easier to find books covering life in the higher echelons of society, but I’ve aimed to include those which reflect, at least in part, the lives of people of humbler origin. This review, which covers a small selection of authors, is arranged in alphabetical order, with life dates, details of the areas and times they wrote about and, in some cases, quotes.
These are just a few of the factual books I’ve found useful for the background not usually found in official records, but there are many other authors based around Britain, featuring different places and times, which will be of great value too.
‘a mighty South-West wind… strangely tore our sea walls… The Water threw down several houses, and in one an antient Woman was drown’d’
William Cobbett 1763-1835 – farmer, soldier, journalist
Written work: Rural Rides
Period written: 1821-1826
Area covered: Southern England
From 1821 to 1826, William Cobbett, a farmer, soldier, and journalist, toured the southern English countryside, mainly on horseback, but sometimes
